Make it easy for visitors to your site to find the information you feel is most important. For a photographer it has to start with your galleries.

by Skip CohenHow much time and money have you invested in your website? Let’s assume you love it and it’s doing everything you want it to do. Assuming everything is wonderful in your Internet world how many clicks does it take for a visitor to get to the most relevant information on your website? If it’s any more than two, then you might be missing the boat and losing opportunities. Don’t make your visitors mine through your site to find what’s most important.

They may not break out in a sweat, but navigating through your website shouldn’t be aerobic! As a photographer, grab your visitors with images first and your bio, background, contact information, pricing etc. later. Looking for what's most relevant on some websites is like trying to talk to a live body at Comcast! And when you do finally get a live body, it’s rarely somebody who can help you.

Your website is your storefront. It's an introduction to your business and especially your images! What good is building up the greatest content in the world if people have to work to find it?

Thanks for the informative article Skip, there is nothing more frustrating as trying to navigate through a maze of a website and not find the info that your looking for. I suggest to photographers that main page should have basic info such as where and how to contact you. Sometimes simple is the best.

"Why?"

Check out"Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog.It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're coming up on 100 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

Authors

Skip Cohen is President of SCU, founder of Marketing Essentials International and past president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI. He's been an active participant in the photographic industry since joining Hasselblad USA in 1987 as president. He has co-authored six books on photography and actively supports dozens of projects each year involving photographic education.

Scott Bourne

Scott Bourne was the first Dean of Marketing at SCU. He helped to establish this blog as a resource for aspiring and working professional photographers. He's an educator, artist, author and from time to time you'll see his name on guest posts that are always relevant to photography and marketing!